Bidirectionality: Mistakes That Extend Beyond the Screen

Anna Rubkiewicz · Posted onSeptember 11, 2018September 13, 2018

Let’s assume you’ve just been approached with a proposal of working on a highly prospective, Arabic UX project for the first time in your career. Alternatively, your company is looking to expand to the MENA market and needs to design and localize their product to new grounds. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Still, your knowledge of the language and alphabet is near zero, and you’ve never studied the culture enough to know how it overlaps with the widely-defined Western world. If you’re new to the RTL (right-to-left) world of interfaces, then going into a new field can be as intriguing, as challenging.

If you’re about to kick off your first Arabic script project, then let me share some words of reassurance:

b. with some guidance, you’ll quickly learn about the differences in culture and script, and will be surprised how quickly you find common ground 🙂

So, how do we get you started?

Firstly, if you’re new to my blog, I highly recommend you take a look at my first article on Arabic UX, which is perfect introductory reading. In the following article, I’d like to shed more light on an area I mentioned in my previous articles; one that I believe is the most critical issue on the horizon once you embark on your Arabic UX journey.

I’m talking about bidirectionality (also referred to as “bidi”), or, more specifically, the lack thereof. In my experience as a UX consultant, bidi is the most recurring challenge that developers and designers face on their way to creating an Arabic website or app.

So what does bidi do? To simplify, bidi is the technical ability of your software to process Latin script (LTR) within an Arabic, or other RTL text – or vice versa – without it being broken into pieces. The most common effect of bidi incompatibility is undesired word reordering in a sentence. An extreme form – less common, but still notable – is when text editors/software lack RTL processing capabilities, and not only distort the word order, but also their letters (which, in turn, makes it impossible to read).

If that just sounded like a purely technical issue that only the dev team needs to worry about, then let me tell you this – the effects of bidi incompatibility (and other issues with RTL support) extend far beyond the screen. Precisely, to human skin.

Have you ever seen a compilation of Arabic tattoo fails? 99% of the failed Arabic skin art you see online are a result of the journey the text went through before the tattoo artist started inking.

So here’s what potentially takes place:

A person decides to tattoo an Arabic word or sentence – he/she looks it up in Google Translate, or asks an Arabic-speaking friend to send over the proper phrase.

He/she copy-pastes the text from GT or communicator to a .doc/.pdf file, resizes the font accordingly, prints it out, and hands it over to the tattoo artist.

A non-reader of Arabic tattooes exactly what was provided to him/her on paper.

If the person is lucky, the text editor/messenger handled the script well and everything looks good. If not, then the new body art owner has just been tattooed a word or letter in distorted form.

While some programs handle RTL and combined LTR/RTL strings correctly, such as Google Translate and Microsoft Word (according to this post), others do not necessarily have to, given their presets. Hence, if you process words in text editors or graphic programs optimized for Latin script only, it is possible that Arabic text will be mirrored and treated as an LTR language, with words and letters ordered from left-to-right.

Surprisingly, many professional outlets fall into this trap – below, are two examples of many out there:

The letters in the poster are in isolated form and written from left-to-right. A possible error of a graphic editing program. Source: http://museoautomocion.com/es/EXPOSICIONES/ACTUAL/rojo-2018

This combines several errors – not only are the Arabic words distorted, but the name and surname of the expert reads (sic!) “Name” and “Surname” – a template was sent to production without anyone transcribing the real credentials! Source: A documentary I watched a while back – can’t recall the title.

Handling Bidi as a Designer

As we leave the tattoo analogy, and having shown you what can happen if you don’t pay attention to word processing, what can you, as a designer, do to avoid a flawed, unprofessional first impression on the Arabic market?

Here are some of the crucial tips:
– inform your tech team and stakeholders right away that bidi implementation is critically needed and might engage time and resources,
– check if the software you use handles scripts you can’t personally read (i.e. check for settings/plugins in Sketch, Axure, or AI),
– before launching a product on the market, consult an Arabic speaker or consultant so you can rest assured thatall content will be legible upon publication.

With the above in mind, you’ll be able to minimize one of the most critical technical risks, and concentrate your efforts on perfecting other aspects of the service.

Interested in discussing your own product in regards to bidi? Or maybe there’s something you’d like to share/add RTL support implementation goes?

Privacy Settings

Who we are
ArabicUXDesign.com is a blog run by a single individual, who shares Arabic UX knowledge and offers personalized consultancy services upon request.

You can contact me at: Anna Rubkiewicz, anna@arabicuxdesign.com or admin@arabicuxdesign.com

What personal data we collect and why we collect it
The site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience, assist with navigation, provide the option to give feedback, assist our marketing efforts, and provide content from third parties. A more detailed list of data use purposes is listed below.

The site collects both personal and non-personal data. We collect personal data from users only if they provide such information voluntarily. Users may visit our site anonymously, with the sole difference that it may prevent them from engaging in certain site related options.

We may collect personal data such as name, email address, IP address, and non-personal data such as browser user agent, operating systems, Internet connection method, device model, and similar. The website uses technical data, such as cookies and analytics, after consent is given by the user. We may collect the data provided by the user in comments and contact form as a means of enhancing user convenience in the future and detecting spam. We use analytical data on user sessions to better understand users’ interests and cater to them in the future.

We may collect and use personal information for the following:

Improving customer experience/responding to cooperation proposals:
The information you provide allows us to respond to your requests and provide support/answers to questions.
Enhancing user experience:
We may use information on user behaviour to understand how our users interact with the website and which areas of the website are most popular among the audience.
Sending emails/newsletters:
We may use the email address provided by the user to respond to questions, comments, and other contact requests. When the user subscribes to the mailing list, the email address will be used to send her/him updates such as new blog posts, recommended external articles, or related services information. The user may unsubscribe from receiving future emails at any time either by following unsubscribe instructions in newsletter emails or by contact us on the website.

Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms
For contact forms, we keep submissions indefinitely for customer services purposes, but we do not use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes. Data collected through contact forms may be deleted at any time by contacting us through our website.

Cookies
The website uses cookies as a means of enhancing user experience and saving repetitive data. Cookies may track certain information about the user and are placed in users’ hard drives for keeping records for future use. The user may choose to either set cookie alerts in their respective web browser when a site uses cookies, or he/she may choose to block cookies in the web browser settings altogether. Please note that while blocking cookies is certainly possible, some functionalities of the website might not be working properly without them.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics
We use Google Analytics and Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights to collect analytics data on users interacting with the website. We anonymize IP addresses sent by the tracker objects by removing the last octet of the IP address prior to its storage. You may view Google Analytics and Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights privacy policies here and here. You may opt out of Google Analytics data collection either through installing Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On (available here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/?hl=en) or by installing Ad-Blocking software such as Plugins/Add-Ons.

Sharing and storing your data with third-parties
We do not rent, sell, trade, or give access to your personal information to others. Through the use of analytical, SEO-optimizing, and security plugins and scripts, we may share generic, anonymized demographic information to our partners and affiliates.

Your data such as username, email, and Gravatar/photo, as well as comment content, may be backed up along with the rest of the website in regular backups performed by UpgraftPlus. Backup data is stored on Home.pl (https://regulaminy.home.pl/polityka-prywatnosci-homepl.pdf), with limited backup copies stored on Dropbox.com (https://www.dropbox.com/privacy), both of which are GDPR compliant.

How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, have left comments, or contacted us through the contact form, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

How we protect your data
We adopt appropriate security measures to protect your data, such as, but not limited to, using WordPress security plugins such as Wordfence Security. The website has an active SSL certificate. We use security plugins and regular scans to detect any threats of data breach and protect against unauthorized access to your personal information, username, password, and other personal data stored on the website.

What data breach procedures we have in place
We have an automatized reporting system set in place to detect potential data breaches.

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
We may use anonymized user data collected by Google Analytics to create user profiles to better cater the website free content and services offer. To read more about the subject, scroll up to the “Analytics” section.

Your acceptance of the terms above
By using this Site, you confirm your acceptance of the policy above. If you do not agree with the terms specified, please do not use the website.

NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.

Privacy Policy

Who we are
ArabicUXDesign.com is a blog run by a single individual, who shares Arabic UX knowledge and offers personalized consultancy services upon request.

You can contact me at: Anna Rubkiewicz, anna@arabicuxdesign.com or admin@arabicuxdesign.com

What personal data we collect and why we collect it
The site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience, assist with navigation, provide the option to give feedback, assist our marketing efforts, and provide content from third parties. A more detailed list of data use purposes is listed below.

The site collects both personal and non-personal data. We collect personal data from users only if they provide such information voluntarily. Users may visit our site anonymously, with the sole difference that it may prevent them from engaging in certain site related options.

We may collect personal data such as name, email address, IP address, and non-personal data such as browser user agent, operating systems, Internet connection method, device model, and similar. The website uses technical data, such as cookies and analytics, after consent is given by the user. We may collect the data provided by the user in comments and contact form as a means of enhancing user convenience in the future and detecting spam. We use analytical data on user sessions to better understand users’ interests and cater to them in the future.

We may collect and use personal information for the following:

Improving customer experience/responding to cooperation proposals:
The information you provide allows us to respond to your requests and provide support/answers to questions.
Enhancing user experience:
We may use information on user behaviour to understand how our users interact with the website and which areas of the website are most popular among the audience.
Sending emails/newsletters:
We may use the email address provided by the user to respond to questions, comments, and other contact requests. When the user subscribes to the mailing list, the email address will be used to send her/him updates such as new blog posts, recommended external articles, or related services information. The user may unsubscribe from receiving future emails at any time either by following unsubscribe instructions in newsletter emails or by contact us on the website.

Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms
For contact forms, we keep submissions indefinitely for customer services purposes, but we do not use the information submitted through them for marketing purposes. Data collected through contact forms may be deleted at any time by contacting us through our website.

Cookies
The website uses cookies as a means of enhancing user experience and saving repetitive data. Cookies may track certain information about the user and are placed in users’ hard drives for keeping records for future use. The user may choose to either set cookie alerts in their respective web browser when a site uses cookies, or he/she may choose to block cookies in the web browser settings altogether. Please note that while blocking cookies is certainly possible, some functionalities of the website might not be working properly without them.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics
We use Google Analytics and Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights to collect analytics data on users interacting with the website. We anonymize IP addresses sent by the tracker objects by removing the last octet of the IP address prior to its storage. You may view Google Analytics and Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights privacy policies here and here. You may opt out of Google Analytics data collection either through installing Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On (available here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/?hl=en) or by installing Ad-Blocking software such as Plugins/Add-Ons.

Sharing and storing your data with third-parties
We do not rent, sell, trade, or give access to your personal information to others. Through the use of analytical, SEO-optimizing, and security plugins and scripts, we may share generic, anonymized demographic information to our partners and affiliates.

Your data such as username, email, and Gravatar/photo, as well as comment content, may be backed up along with the rest of the website in regular backups performed by UpgraftPlus. Backup data is stored on Home.pl (https://regulaminy.home.pl/polityka-prywatnosci-homepl.pdf), with limited backup copies stored on Dropbox.com (https://www.dropbox.com/privacy), both of which are GDPR compliant.

How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, have left comments, or contacted us through the contact form, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

How we protect your data
We adopt appropriate security measures to protect your data, such as, but not limited to, using WordPress security plugins such as Wordfence Security. The website has an active SSL certificate. We use security plugins and regular scans to detect any threats of data breach and protect against unauthorized access to your personal information, username, password, and other personal data stored on the website.

What data breach procedures we have in place
We have an automatized reporting system set in place to detect potential data breaches.

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data
We may use anonymized user data collected by Google Analytics to create user profiles to better cater the website free content and services offer. To read more about the subject, scroll up to the “Analytics” section.

Your acceptance of the terms above
By using this Site, you confirm your acceptance of the policy above. If you do not agree with the terms specified, please do not use the website.